Garfield volunteers for military recruiting battle

M.L. LYK, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

By M.L. LYKE, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Amy Hagopian, co-chairwoman of the Garfield High PTSA, lights up Marine Sgt. Christopher Matthews in the school lunchroom. Hagopian is trying to get military recruiters barred from the school. The Marines and the Army have failed to meet recruiting quotas in recent months.
Photo: Dan DeLong/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Sgt. Melisa Porter had just spread out the freebies yesterday on her Army of One table -- give-away pens, pencils, computer games, slick brochures -- when the anti-recruiting leader arrived ready to do battle.

"Do you understand that we don't want you here?" said PTSA co-Chairwoman Amy Hagopian, who came to the Garfield High School lunchroom carrying pictures of Iraq vets maimed in war.

"Do you see these pictures of people who come home with prosthetics? Do you see them?" challenged Hagopian, a University of Washington assistant professor in health administration and the mother of a senior at Garfield.

"My uncle was injured in Iraq in March," responded the young new recruiter. "And you know what? He feels it was worth it!"

Yesterday was the first day military recruiters have been on campus since the Garfield High School PTSA passed a resolution seeking to oust them from public-school campuses. The resolution, first of its kind in the state, passed May 9.

"Given the seriousness of what they are requesting people to participate in, we'd just prefer they not be on school grounds, which are supposed to be protected space for students," said Hagopian.

Seattle School District officials responded to the resolution with a statement that it is illegal to ban only military recruiters. Under the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act, military recruiters must be granted the same access to students as college recruiters or job recruiters at schools that get federal money.

The face-off in the lunchroom comes on the eve of tomorrow's national "stand-down" day for Army recruiters. Military commanders described the one-day halt as an effort to re-educate an estimated 7,500 recruiters on proper conduct.

With recruitment falling far short of quotas -- overall enlistment in the all-volunteer forces is down about 12 percent since 2001 -- the pumped-up ranks of recruiters are desperate to "make mission." Some are abusing rules to do it.

Since October last year, the Army has investigated about 480 allegations of impropriety. So far 91 have been confirmed, eight recruiters have been relieved of duty, and 98 have been admonished.

Cases with disciplinary action pending include a Houston recruiter who threatened a wavering student with arrest if he backed out. Another recruiter in Colorado faces punishment for helping a student who claimed to be a dropout fake a high-school diploma and buy products to clean traces of drugs from his system.

Earlier this month, a New York Times investigation cited cases of recruiters hiding police records and mental histories of enlistees and providing cheat sheets for tests.

"Having the stand-down is basically to reaffirm the integrity of recruiting, to talk about what's right, what's honest," said Sgt. Darrell McAllister, a recruiter who showed up at Garfield to help Porter pack up and leave after reporters descended on her.

McAllister said they had suddenly been called by commanders for an inspection of recruiting tools.

Students watching yesterday's confrontation had a mix of opinions. Sophomore Ismail Hamza, sipping water from Marine recruiters' give-away bottle, said it was OK by him if they were there. But he had no intention of signing up. "You're just going to Iraq. That's all you're going to do."

Local career counselors have received numerous complaints that recruiters are soft-pedaling combat in Iraq in their pitches. "They're trying to assure students they won't be sent overseas," Garfield career counselor Karin Engstrom said. "You can't do that."

Yesterday recruiter Porter told two students that, while there's always a chance of going to Iraq, a lot of Army Reserve jobs are "less risky ... like truck drivers."

U.S. military transportation units have suffered significant casualties in Iraq in random roadside bombings.

Engstrom has told Porter and other recruiters that they can be on campus only one day a month, and all must come on the same day -- the better to monitor them. She makes sure to pass out sheets describing "Ten Points to Consider Before You Sign a Military Enlistment Agreement" when they are there.

Garfield, whose highly diverse student body of 1,600 is 56.9 percent non-white, has taken controversial stands before. In 2002, it came up with a resolution opposing an invasion of Iraq.

The new PTSA anti-recruiting resolution states that joining the military can be a "life and death" decision.

Opinions on it have been strong from all quarters. Navy Chief Petty Officer Robert Born wrote in to the school's newspaper: "I find this to be quite bothersome, as it is the military that provides your school and our country the freedom to speak without fear of censorship."

Other anti-recruiting movements are also picking up steam.

In recent months, college students in California and New York have forced recruiters off campus, and in Boston, activists dumped 5 gallons of fake blood on the doorstep of a recruiting center.

In the Puget Sound area, a group of students and parents stopped a Blackhawk helicopter from landing on fields at Bainbridge Island High School in April. The students said the helicopter, used for Army National Guard recruiting tours, was war propaganda.

Earlier this month, a student at Foss High School in Tacoma sent e-mails to thousands of activists across the country, urging them to call school officials after plans for an anti-recruitment "teach-in" hit administrative roadblocks.

Some students at Garfield are planning a walkout Monday and a march on Army recruiting headquarters down the street.

But not everyone is on board.

Yesterday senior Timmel Bowens, who has signed up with the Army but is still trying to pass the aptitude tests, said having recruiters on campus is "cool" and that the PTSA resolution is "not right."

"Why would you prohibit recruiters from coming to high schools if there are students trying to join up?" he asked, after picking up a giveaway computer game called "Special Forces" from recruiter Porter's freebie table.

He has seen the game before. "It's like you go 'round and just kill people basically," said Bowens.

That works for him, onscreen or in real life, Iraq -- or whatever.

"To me, going overseas and killing people, I would feel happy about myself for that," he said.